The Alabaster Zone
by KatanaBladeArtist
Summary: Twenty-six snapshots from the lives of two of Konoha's most well-loved ninja. AU Oneshot.


_**A/N: This little fic's been bouncing around in my head for a while now, but I didn't know how to write it. You can thank my best friend for this one; she gave me the inspiration I needed to get this written.**_

_**Beware of the AU-ness and the OOC-Sasuke-of-DOOM-ness!**_

_**I don't own Naruto.**_

* * *

_Alabaster_

When she first sees him, standing perfectly still in the corner of the room, she thinks he's a statue, sculpted of blocks of alabaster, onyx, and dark sapphire. It's only when their sensei calls his name that he moves ever-so-slightly, and she thinks, _He's perfect._

* * *

_Blood_

When their class goes to the hospital they see him laying there, dead to the world. He's covered in bandages, on life support, after his brother tortured him and killed off the rest of his clan. As she watches, his eyes begin to hemorrhage. She notices the too-dark, viscous blood is the same color as her dress.

* * *

_Chain_

He's back at the Academy a month later, wearing a silver chain with his clan's symbol shining proud against his chest. She asks why. He replies that it was his mother's, then falls silent. It's the first time he's spoken since the massacre.

* * *

_Deluge_

It's raining the day they graduate from the Academy. She forgot her umbrella at home in her haste to be on time to classes. She's about to run out into the deluge when something hits her arm. She turns to find a raincoat with a familiar emblem on its back. She looks around but he's already gone.

* * *

_Even_

He's not shocked when the idiot of their year is assigned to his team. He knows the balance of power has to be even among teams. He is surprised, however, when the pink-haired girl joins them. He's surprised, but not in a bad way.

* * *

_Faith_

That night, he dreams of something other than his past. It's the first time in a long, long while. He can't remember what it was when he wakes, but he can recall flashes of rose and emerald and a voice that whispers softly in his ears the rest of the day.

_Have faith in yourself, Sasuke. And have faith in your teammates._

* * *

_Genin_

They get their headbands that day, the day they become Genin. The blonde idiot, also known as Naruto, ties his on with a grin, while the pink-haired girl (her name is Sakura) slides it back to keep her long locks out of her eyes. He stares at his, and traces the engraved leaf gently. He straps it onto his forehead, tightening the navy cloth as memories of his brother doing the same every morning flood his mind.

* * *

_Haste_

Naruto is impatient, waiting, waiting, _waiting _for their new sensei. His haste is palpable, and it's starting to affect Sasuke. The other teams are long gone, and he's beginning to wonder if the man got the news at all. He's also aware of their other teammate, who's fallen asleep on one of the desks. He reaches over and brushes cerise strands out of her face. Naruto, being the oblivious person he is, doesn't notice.

* * *

_Intense_

His stare is intense, Sakura notices. He only shows one charcoal eye, his other being covered with the headband and the rest of his face obscured by a mask. Silver hair falls over his face, and all she can think is, _Please don't demote us because an eraser fell on your head._

* * *

_Jōnin_

They learn next to nothing about him in the next few minutes. He is the last of the Hatake clan, famous for their white chakra techniques, but that's it. They do, however, learn that he will be their Jōnin sensei for the rest of their lives. When Naruto hears this, he screams in sheer frustration.

* * *

_Kakashi_

They've taken to calling him Kakashi-sensei. He's becoming a fatherly figure to them all; Naruto, who's never had a family, Sakura, whose family doesn't understand, and Sasuke, whose family died a long, long time ago.

* * *

_Late_

Sakura brings a shōgi board to their meeting place every day, and slowly teaches them how to play. Kakashi's always at least three hours late; and while Naruto can never come close, Sasuke and Sakura's matches often last longer than they care to know.

* * *

_Mission_

The first C-ranked mission they get swiftly turns into an A-rank. Sasuke almost dies from poisoned senbon, and the first thing he sees as he wakes from a period of suspended animation is her pink-haired head buried in his chest as she cries.

* * *

_Nurse_

He can't be moved, and Kakashi and Naruto don't know the first thing about medical ninjutsu. Sakura is the one to play nurse for him in the months that pass since the disastrous Wave mission. She's become almost a permanent fixture in his life, and he's realizing that he couldn't remember what it was like without her.

* * *

_Open_

She walks in in the middle of the night to check on him, and finds him writhing among the sheets, screaming himself hoarse as tears stream down his face. She's there in a heartbeat, and he opens up to her. He tells her everything, and falls asleep in her arms. And that's when she realizes that maybe Sasuke is just as human as her.

* * *

_Perfect_

He goes back to training the next day, driving himself to be the perfect ninja. To abandon his thoughts and emotions. But he finds he can't, all thanks to a certain girl.

* * *

_Quiet_

They meet up for a mission again. It's unusually quiet; even Naruto seems to sense the tension between his two teammates. A while later, Sakura asks him shyly if he wants to play another round of shōgi. He complies.

* * *

_Reruns_

She's the one who's sick this time, with the chakra-eating flu that's so common among ninja around the wintertime. He always pays back the debts he owes, and so, honor-bound, he visits her every day after missions. They watch the reruns on T.V. and talk. It's during that time that they first become friends.

* * *

_Shock_

They understand at the same time. Sasuke figures out that he's been growing closer, and closer, and _closer _to her, and that maybe it's not such a bad thing after all. Sakura gathers that she might just be falling for her best friend. Either way, both are in shock.

* * *

_Tense_

He doesn't understand his feelings; she doesn't know if he feels the same. Either way, their sensei and teammate are getting worried; the tension in the air between them thickens every time they see one another. And it makes Naruto and Kakashi tense, too.

* * *

_Uchiha_

He's sixteen; so is she. They've been teammates for three years. She's loved him for two and a half. So has he, but he finally realizes it the day before their third (and hopefully final) Chuunin exam. But the Uchiha clan has always been stubborn, and he never admitted to himself that he _might just be in love _until now.

* * *

_Velocity_

He takes a high-velocity kunai for her; in the moment, he isn't thinking rationally. He needs to save her. Looking back, Sasuke can pick out over twenty ways he could've stopped said kunai without injuring himself in the process. However, none of those ways involved spending time with his favorite pink-haired medic.

* * *

_Window_

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul; Sakura finds that's true. She doesn't need to ask him why he saved her; she can see it deep in the ruby red of the Sharingan.

* * *

_Xenos_

_Xenos. Stranger. _Itwas the perfect word to describe Sasuke; he's changed so much since they first met that if her eight-year-old self were to see him now, she'd mistake him for his brother. Or his cousin. But Sakura knows that the boy she fell in love with two and a half years ago is still there; he's just become a man.

* * *

_Yes_

She asks him if he wants her, if he would die for her, if he thinks she's pretty, if he likes her. He says 'no' to everything. Just as she's about to run away in tears, he speaks.

"I don't want you because I need you.

I wouldn't die for you because you are my life.

I don't think you're pretty, I know you're beautiful.

I don't like you, I love you.

Sakura Haruno, will you be my girlfriend?"

She starts to cry, but this time it's not from sadness.

She says yes, of course.

* * *

_Zone_

They're in the figurative 'zone'. When they're together, everything else falls away and it's only them, in a world of black and white and vibrant, vibrant color. They're the only ones moving in a sea of statues.

**_And that's how Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno know they're in love._**


End file.
